Special Interest Groups are currently suspended

From 2022, we have planned to extend the PIElink lunchtime forum discussion programme with more on-going engagement via 'Special Interest Groups', or 'SIGs'.  However, with the PIELink's founder and editor, Robin Johnson, now retiring and unable to manage this development, for the moment these plans are suspended.

(See also the page on proposals for an editorial group to oversee and promote the development of future forums and SIGS : HERE)

Nevertheless:

Special Interest Group : Housing First, PIEs & Pizazz

Housing First - seen through a PIE lens

In autumn 2021, we co-hosted - with Alex Smith of Housing First England -  several discussions on the working relationship between Housing First and PIEs, with the focus then on community integration.

This discussion began to explore in more depth the suggestion that we can now see Housing First services as one particular application of the PIE approach. It began with a presentation by Robin Johnson on how the PIEs 2 framework had aimed to address all the same issues that HF services too must address.

If so, Robin asks in his presentation (opposite/below), can we then use the Pizazz, the PIEs assessment and service development process, as a way to extend and get below the surface of Housing First principles, to explore more the pragmatism, the variety and creativity in what works?

  • How well - or how far - does PIEs 2.0 really work, to explore and support Housing First practice?
  • How useful is the Pizazz - now widely used to help 'embed' the PIEs approach in other services - in HF?
  • What is the potential for systemic development in the Pizazz's new software counterpart, the PIE Abacus?
  • And what more might we yet need to do, to take this forward, into community of practice sharing, and research?

We propose(d) to explore these issues via a hybrid in-put format.   For full details, email : robin [at] pielink.net

 

Community integration : being 'housed', and being 'at home'

The COVID era has given a huge boost to the case for rapid re-housing; but also it has thrown up issues of loneliness, the importance of a sense of belonging. It has also meant that many general needs housing services need to find ways to work with tenants with complex needs, and with support services and local communities.

In the UK and elsewhere, we tend to think of Housing First in terms of 'general needs housing' - that is, as 'ordinary' housing as distinct from more specialist-built units. (In the language of Housing Fist, these are seen as 'scattered site' accommodation, as distinct from 'congregated' units ( see the page HERE on this distinction).

But these lines can blur. In the US and Canada, for example, we may find permanent tenancies offered, within the Housing First programme, in whole apartment blocks, purchased and adapted for the purpose; in motels; or in 'village' or 'campus' style housing, wether adapted or specially built for the purpose. In the UK, as a response to the COVID crisis, we have seen hotels brought into use as temporary accommodation. In other countries there have been examples of hotels taken over to provide semi-permanent (ie: flexible tenancy) accommodation.

Another development we have seen is the growth of networks - Clubhouse models, core-and-cluster or hub-and-spoke services, move on accommodation with full tenancies, on-going links in support networks to an original 'intake' unit, a rehabilitation and recovery service; or to an employment project or training scheme; or sports, and even circus skills. These are forms of 'blended' practical and social activity, with purpose, peer support and staffing seamlessly interwoven.

It is in this wide variety of responses, often closely attuned to local circumstances and opportunities, that we see the PIEs approach as providing the overall framework (HERE) to identify 'what good looks like', spanning all these different solutions. We now need to explore the extent to which the Pizazz process works to encourage even more creativity and shared learning between services of all kinds.

 

A Pizazz Handbook for Housing First and PIEs 

One current proposal is that we might - together - look at the 'Useful questions' Handbook (HERE) that was originally published with the Pizazz on paper, to see how far we might use this - and any other accompanying advice - to inform and guide the use of the PIEs model in HF.

We are therefore inviting any services interested to explore together, in the PIEs for HF Special Interest Group, how the PIEs approach can infuse general needs housing, and also help develop new community support models, to tackle the risk of isolation.

NB: This also throws up issues in the language we use, not just within services, and in dealing with service users, but with other agencies, and in speaking to the general public. This discussion will continue to evolve, in the 'service-user-friendly language' forum  (HERE). But if, in the course of these discussions, we do find that it is more helpful to modify the PIEs 2 framework itself and the Pizazz still further, this will be an option.   However, SIG members will need to be aware of the scope for this, and the limitations need for caution, when we want to integrate with the PIE Abacus, the software version of the Pizazz.  (For more on customising with the PIE Abacus, see: HERE) .

 

 

Further background reading/listening/viewing

All forums 

Season Four : HERE

An 'Editorial Board' for the PIElink? : HERE

 

Other SIGs

Roll out and embedding (for PIE leads) : HERE

PIEs and research : HERE

 

'Housing First and PIEs - A natural fit?'

(Robin Johnson's presentation at the October 2021 webinar)

 

 

Housing First and PIEs - a forum conversation excerpt with John McGlone

 

PIElink pages on Housing First and PIEs

Housing First and PIEs - how do they work together? : HERE

Is Housing First itself a PIE approach? : HERE

(Balancing) principles and pragmatism in PIEs and HF : HERE

Housing First and PIEs - where parallel lines meet? : HERE

Housing First, PIEs and the Pizazz (Special Interest Group) : HERE

Housing models, Housing First and PIEs in the US and the UK : HERE

Housing First and PIEs in Europe : HERE

Housing First in the 'new world' : HERE

 

Other related PIElink pages

'Recovery Housing' in the US and the UK : HERE

PIEs, 'scattered site' and 'networked' housing : HERE

Outreach, in-reach and pathways : HERE

A Pizazz for tenancy support ? : HERE

 

 

Library items: discussions

(Please note: you will need to be registered and logged in, to access items from the members' Library.)

NIMHE on the 'At Home?' study : HERE

Robin Johnson on Public health and social housing: a natural alliance?HERE

Dick on Laban on working with the 'pre-contemplative' stage user:  'Take a chance on me' : HERE

Alex Smith and Ray Middleton on Navigators and 'system change broker's: HERE

 

Case studies

Leonie Boland on OT in another key - visual methods assisting person-centred home-making : HERE

Jay Levy on A PIE of pathways - the work of REACH : HERE

1011 Lansdowne (Inter-agency eviction avoidance protocol) :  HERE

The Bell Hotel supportive housing project : HERE